ABSTRACT

Scholars and policy makers have raised pertinent issues on the quality of free primary public schools, versus that of private schools. There has been controversial discussions mainly based on the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination. The main focus of this study was class 8 pupils who were admitted in class one in the year 2000, before free primary education program was implemented. The purpose of this study was to compare factors influencing the academic performance of public and private primary schools class eight in Nango Division Uasin-Gishu District. The main objective of this study was to investigate factors that contribute to the academic performance of private and Public Primary Schools. The second objective was to investigate the relationship between type of school and academic performance of Primary Schools Pupils. In addition if also investigates why some parents prefer private to public schools despite the free primary Education program in public schools. The research made use of simple random sampling to select three public and three private primary schools in Nango Division, Uasin-Gishu District. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

DECLARATION ..................................................................................................................................................... i 

APPROVAL ........................................................................................................................................................... ii 

Statement of the Research Problem .................................................................................................................. 3 

1.5 Significance of the study ............................................................................................................................... 4 

1.6 Definition ofterm ............................................................................................................................................ 5 

CHAPTER TW0 .................................................................................................................................................... 6 

LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................................... 6 

2.0 OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................................. 6 

2.1 Factors that contribute to High or Low Academic Performance ................................................ 6 

2.2 Quality of Academic Performance of Private and public school. ............................................ 22 

2.3 Parental Preference for a School ........................................................................................................ 26 

2.4 Other Factors .......................................................................................................................................... 28 

CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................................................. 29 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 29 

3.0 Overview .................................................................................................................................................. 29 

3.1 The Study Areas ..................................................................................................................................... 29 

3.2 Research Design ..................................................................................................................................... 29 

3.3 Population and Sampling Teclmiques .............................................................................................. 29 

3.4 Data Collection Procedures and Instmmentation ....................................................................... .30 

3.5 Research Design ..................................................................................................................................... 30 

3.6 Population and Sampling Techniques............................................................................... . .... 30 

3. 7 Data Collection Procedures and Instrumentation ....................................................................... 31 

CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................................................ 32 

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS OF DATA AND INTERPRETATION ........................................ 32 

4.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 32 

4.1 Data analysis ............................................................................................................................................ 32 

4.2 Comparing Academic Performance of Standard eight pupils in Public and Private schools . 

..................................................................................................................................................................... 38 

CHAPTER FIVE .................................................................................................................................................. 40 

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION ........................................................... .40 

5.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 40 

5.2 Recommendations ........................................................................................................................................ .40 

5.3 SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................................... 41 

5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................................................ 41 

5.5 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................................... 42 

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................... 43 

Appendix 1: Public and Private Schools Questionnaire ...................................................................... .45